Dad of teen killed in A66 crash charged with assault at son's funeral

The father of a teenager who was killed in a car crash on the A66, where a vehicle drove down the wrong side of a dual carriageway, was arrested for assault at his funeral.

17-year-old Cole Worthy was one of five who died when the car they were in was involved in a head-on collision with a marked armed police car, which also killed two police officers.

His funeral was held on Wednesday (9 September) at Teesside Crematorium, and police were called to reports of a disturbance inside.

39-year-old Gye Worthy has since been charged with common assault and obstructing police.

He'll appear before Teesside Magistrates' Court on 2 October, according to Cleveland Police.

All five in the car were killed when they drove it the wrong way on the A66 and crashed (Facebook)

Also in the car during the A66 crash were Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18 and Theo Rae, 17, while the police officers killed were 38-year-old PC Tom Clough and 37-year-old PC Matthew Blades.

In the early hours of 22 August, the five men were in a Volkswagen Passat that was driving the wrong way on the A66 when they struck the police car; all five were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Funerals for PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades were also held this week, with many police officers in attendance for both ceremonies in Redcar and Hartlepool respectively.

Clough, a British Army veteran, also had soldiers in attendance to pay their respects to his memory as the men were laid to rest in coffins which had been draped in the Union Jack and with police hats placed on top.

Some officers attending the funeral wore patches saying 'PC 2443 Blades - PC 3234 Clough'.

Gye Worthy was charged with assault after police were called to a crematorium during his son's funeral (Facebook)

The Independent Office for Police Conduct says that the two officers were in a vehicle that was searching for the VW Passat after a cloned number plate on the car triggered a camera, but they weren't part of the pursuit that had gone on before the crash.

A fundraiser for the families of the two men amassed over £1 million in a matter of days, and at the time of writing it has climbed to over £1.2 million that will be split equally between the Clough and Blades families.

Active fundraising has since closed, and the Cleveland Police Federation thanked members of the public for their generosity in donating to the families of the two officers who had been killed when their vehicle was struck in the head-on collision.